1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ophthalmic photographing apparatus for photographing a tomographic image of a fundus of an examinee's eye.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, a fundus observation apparatus that obtains a tomographic image of a fundus of an examinee's eye using an optical interference technique (i.e., optical coherence tomography (OCT)) is used for evaluating the condition of the examinee's eye (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication No. 2008-29467). This kind of fundus observation apparatus controls a monitor to display a fundus image picked up by using infrared light. An examiner selects a given area (portion) of the fundus image and obtains a fundus tomographic image of the selected area. The examiner observes the obtained fundus tomographic image and judges the presence or absence of abnormality in the examinee's eye.
However, a great deal of expertise is required for judging the presence or absence of abnormality in the examinee's eye based on the fundus tomographic image because the fundus tomographic configuration varies depending on the selected area of the fundus image.
In addition, conventionally, an ophthalmic photographing apparatus that obtains a tomographic image of an examinee's eye using an optical interference technique (e.g., a tomographic fundus image) using an optical interference technique (i.e., OCT) is known (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication No. 2008-29467).
For example, a front image of the fundus that is obtained by using infrared light is displayed on a monitor, and a given area (portion) of the fundus image is selected. Then, a fundus tomographic image of the selected area is obtained by the OCT device, and is stored temporarily in a memory unit (e.g., a hard disk) of a personal computer. Then, the obtained fundus tomographic image is analyzed by the personal computer (PC) or other devices, and a result of the analysis is displayed on the monitor.
However, conventionally, in order to obtain and analyze a three-dimensional tomographic image, numbers of tomographic images are obtained, so that an examiner takes a lot of trouble with identifying the tomographic images of a diseased area of the eye.